Wrapping the Braveheart kilt

[crows4hire]

I am working on a production of MacBeth in which the director wants the kilts worn in the "style of Braveheart" with the top apron pulled up under a belt in a narrow band and fastened on the shoulder. I've looked at the pictures, but I can't reproduce the wrap... Anyone have a tutorial on this?

[Calgacus]

There are a number of tutorials online, the details vary but they are all pretty much the same in essence. For example-

e6a21cd105e303edf05f81e5728baa2e.jpg

Just Google "how to wear a great kilt" or "how to wear a feileadh mòr".

You will require approximately 9 yards of single width fabric cut in half & stitched together to make a piece of cloth roughly 4.5 yards by 2 yards. Or alternatively, approximately 4.5 yards of double width fabric.

[The Wizard of BC]

Alternatively check out a matchcoat.

http://wildeweavery.com/matchcoats.htm

The wearing of a blanket in this manner has a very long and well documented history.
If we accept that the Great Kilt has its beginnings as the leine and brat,
If we accept that plaide means blanket,
and if we accept that it was supposed to be an all purpose garment,
this is probably much more realistic.

Whenever I see those directions that have you laying 18 feet of modern fabric out on the ground and laying on top of it,
All I can think of is -
What is the first thing you have to do when you wake up?

If this was supposed to be your sleeping blanket and it took that long to get dressed - Do you really want to go through all that laying out of fabric, laying down and arranging "The whole nine yards" of modern kilt fabric just to go to the latrine?

Try it for yourself. grab the blanket off your bed and wrap up in it like you see pictures of American Indians. Simple, easy, practical and historically correct.

[Calgacus]

Alternatively check out a matchcoat.

http://wildeweavery.com/matchcoats.htm

The wearing of a blanket in this manner has a very long and well documented history.
If we accept that the Great Kilt has its beginnings as the leine and brat,
If we accept that plaide means blanket,
and if we accept that it was supposed to be an all purpose garment,
this is probably much more realistic.

Whenever I see those directions that have you laying 18 feet of modern fabric out on the ground and laying on top of it,
All I can think of is -
What is the first thing you have to do when you wake up?

If this was supposed to be your sleeping blanket and it took that long to get dressed - Do you really want to go through all that laying out of fabric, laying down and arranging "The whole nine yards" of modern kilt fabric just to go to the latrine?

Try it for yourself. grab the blanket off your bed and wrap up in it like you see pictures of American Indians. Simple, easy, practical and historically correct.

It appears to me that matchcoats and great kilts fulfill pretty similar functions, though I don't believe that they are the same thing.

I think the evidence suggests that great kilts were about 4-6 yards (12-18 feet) long, and I suspect the reason they would have been that long would have been to provide sufficient material for warmth when used as bedding. I doubt they would have been carefully pleated when put on, more simply scrunch up, slip the belt under, lie down, buckle up, stand up. Yes, it's more of a faff than we are used to, but it's not actually that bad. I've tried it.

Note that the very earliest box pleat kilts were about 4-5 yards long. They were simply the bottom half of a great kilt with the pleats stitched in.

http://www.scottishtartans.co.uk/Joined_Plaids.pdf

http://www.scottishtartans.co.uk/Two...ish_County.pdf

http://www.scottishtartans.co.uk/The_Dunollie_Plaid.pdf

http://www.scottishtartans.co.uk/Unn...ethybridge.pdf

The few remaining complete plaids from the 18th century seem to me to suggest 4-6 yards was typical.

[OC Richard]

It seems to me that the costume designer for Braveheart saw various images of Highland dress showing

-the 'great kilt'/'belted plaid'/'philamore'

-the modern kilt/small kilt/ 'philabeg' worn with a separate 'long plaid' wrapped around the body

and, not understanding that he/she was looking at two quite different forms of dress, and assuming that all the images were showing the same thing, tried to make sense of it all and created a hybrid thing which, in fact, doesn't make any structural sense.

Too bad that now people are looking at the costumes in that movie as a guide to doing early Highland Dress.

At an early period there would be two forms of Highland Dress worn by people with the money to afford nice clothing

1) tartan jacket and trews, with a long plaid (simple rectangle of tartan) loosely draped around the body. These four items were often in different tartans.

2) tartan jacket and great kilt/belted plaid/philamore and patterned hose. These four items were often in different tartans, the hose usually being red & white.

The jackets could also be plain. Waistcoats were sometimes worn.

The great kilt/belted plaid costume in 1710. The slashed doublet would have been quite old-fashioned at that time.

We don't have good portraits of periods much earlier than this, so these early 18th century portraits will have to serve.



The trews & long plaid costume





One can see that the plaid wrapped around the body isn't worn with the kilt in the early period, the great kilt/belted plaid/philamore being quite sufficient on its own.

Now here we are a century later, in the early 19th century, with the small kilt worn with long plaid wrapped around the body. This costume is obviously anachronistic to MacBeth, Braveheart, Brigadoon, etc but nevertheless it's this sort of 19th century costume that Hollywood costumers seem to always have in mind

[crows4hire]

Thanks for your responses. I agree that is it not a traditional approach... it just happens to be what is needed for the moment and if it will require any cutting on my plaid, then it isn't going to happen!
That said, I parsed through the movie last night and found a scene where Mel is being dressed by his wife. He is already belted and all of the extra material is somehow gathered on his right hip. It appears she is tying it at his waist to secure it, then she passes it across his chest in a thin band and over his left shoulder.

That said, that is the look I am trying to achieve. The material in a band across the chest, rather than covering it. I have seen this numerous times online and at games so there must be a way to achieve it, but I'll be darned if I can figure it out.

[Calgacus]

Of course the historical accuracy of all this is a bit of a moot point because Macbeth predates the wearing of kilts at all. The historical King Macbeth reigned in the 11th century when, if anything, highland dress resembled Irish dress, namely leine & brat. The play was written around 1600, just at the point when the earliest images of the belted plaid were produced.

Highland dress pre-belted plaid (1577)

scotsmen2.jpg

Earliest illustration of a belted plaid c.1605

Earliest c1605 by Richard the Rogue, on Flickr

Early illustration, 1641 woodcut

1641 woodcut by Richard the Rogue, on Flickr

[BBNC]

Alternatively check out a matchcoat.

http://wildeweavery.com/matchcoats.htm

The wearing of a blanket in this manner has a very long and well documented history.
If we accept that the Great Kilt has its beginnings as the leine and brat,
If we accept that plaide means blanket,
and if we accept that it was supposed to be an all purpose garment,
this is probably much more realistic.

Whenever I see those directions that have you laying 18 feet of modern fabric out on the ground and laying on top of it,
All I can think of is -
What is the first thing you have to do when you wake up?

If this was supposed to be your sleeping blanket and it took that long to get dressed - Do you really want to go through all that laying out of fabric, laying down and arranging "The whole nine yards" of modern kilt fabric just to go to the latrine?

Try it for yourself. grab the blanket off your bed and wrap up in it like you see pictures of American Indians. Simple, easy, practical and historically correct.

Steve, were all those patterns of blankets you pictured typical of the 18th and early 19th century? I noticed one has the tick marks for 3 beaver skins required to trade for it. Are those all Hudson Bay blankets?

BBNC

[The Wizard of BC]

A point of clrafication -

The "points" you can see along the edge of a Hudson's Bay Point Blanket denote the overall finished size and weight of the blanket. The Official Hudson's Bay Site de-bunks the myth that they denote the number of pelts needed to buy it.

http://www.hbcheritage.ca/hbcheritag...anket/history/

For my public demonstrations I use an original Scarlet Red HBC 4 point blanket. (4 points denote a standard today's double bed size or 70" X 90")
Like many people I wrap up in a blanket on chilly evenings. When I found information on Matchcoats I began to experiment. Using just a belt I found, after just one try, that it works eminently well. If you add a pin even more so.

It just makes no sense to me that someone would think it more practical to use more yardage of modern kilt fabric when a single blanket works so well.

The example we have of two lengths of single width fabric joined together are fairly recent. Even Peter who wrote the articles says that they are products of the post proscription revival era.

So if you don't mind I am going to continue to promote the matchcoat as the most practical and most historically documented example. At least until someone finds documentable proof of what a Great Kilt really was.

[Benning Boy]

There was at least one other early trade blanket maker who also used the point system to denote size, a company called Eatons or Eastons, as I recall, out of England. They supplied traders not a part of the HBC system. There may be information obtainable through The Mueum of the Fur Trade site.

In my mind, to do all it is said that if could do, the great kilt would have to actually be blanket weight material, not light kilt cloth, not even regimental weight.